5 Reasons to Add Video Content to Your Marketing Strategy

by aschmidt

Breaking: To stay competitive marketers are turning to video to broaden their reach, boost conversions and stand out.

Read time: 3 minutes

By virtually every metric, video has become the 800-pound gorilla of the online marketing space. As this captivating visual medium continues to flourish, brands and marketers of all stripes are beginning to recognize how important it is to include video in their marketing mix. Below are five good reasons why you should not hesitate to add video content to your marketing strategy.

1. Video leaves a stronger impression.

There’s a lot of truth to the old saying that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Human beings are visual creatures by nature, as the brain can process visual data 60,000 times faster than text. Not only is video the optimal medium for data consumption, but it creates a stronger emotional connection with the viewer as well. As a marketer, you can leverage this powerful aspect of video to foster an emotional connection that will drive viewers towards a desired action.

2. Video is an engagement magnet.

According to research published by the Content Marketing Institute, audiences are ten times more likely to engage with, comment on and/or share video content than blog posts or social media updates. In fact, multiple studies have shown that video is shared more often than any other type of online content. And it doesn’t just stop with sharing – video can also produce the type of engagement that leads to conversions as well. According to data published by Animoto, shoppers who view a product video are nearly twice as likely to purchase the product than non-viewers.

3. Video tends to rank well in search engines.

If you’re targeting certain keywords with your content marketing efforts, you might find that it’s much easier to rank a video in Google for those keywords versus a blog post or an article on a web page. Bear in mind that Google now owns YouTube – the largest video sharing site on the planet – and it’s not uncommon for them to show preference to relevant YouTube videos in their search results. Try optimizing your videos for organic search by including relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions, and you might be surprised at how quickly they will move up in the search rankings.

4. Video is a very mobile-friendly medium.

It doesn’t take a marketing genius to see that the world has gone mobile. With every month that passes by, more and more people are consuming video content on their mobile devices, so if you want to reach a broader (and rapidly growing) audience, be sure to add mobile-friendly video content to your marketing mix.

5. Video is the direction of the future.

According to the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, video now accounts for 74% of all online traffic, and this trend towards video-based content consumption only looks to continue from here. Recent statements from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have added to this consensus, as he has repeatedly remarked that the social media giant is shifting all of its focus to online video for the future. Simply put, creating video content is a non-negotiable if you want your brand to maintain a forward-looking marketing strategy.

If you want to stay in lockstep with the rapid changes happening in today’s highly competitive marketplace, you must begin to regard video as an indispensable component of your marketing strategy. As the above points have shown, your investment in this highly engaging medium can do wonders towards broadening your reach, boosting conversions and helping your brand stand out from the crowd.